Hasta La Creative!

Comics and advertising have gone hand-in-hand since the medium’s early days, with classic ads selling everything from sea monkeys to Hostess products. Still, rarely have comics been utilized to tell tales from the ad industry. At least not until the team behind “Sarah and Agatha: A Creative Saga” got into the game. Art director Agatha…

Oracle Advertising will provide brands on Nextdoor with more controls and greater transparency with the aim of helping them maximize their presence on the platform under terms of a strategic collaboration revealed Monday. The partnership is anchored by measurement and marketing analytics suite Oracle Moat and its attention, frequency, reach and verification services to help…

Meta globally rolled out Branded Content on Facebook Reels Monday, giving creators the option to apply the Branded Content tag tool (the Paid Partnership With label) on Reels in organic posts, with tagged brands gaining the ability to convert those Reels to Branded Content Ads. The company explained in a blog post Monday, “All creator…

InfoSum’s Brian Lesser and Joanna O’Connell said the stage was a little hot, but they still cut through the ad tech hype.

Advertising Week New York is back—today is the first of four days—and so is our Advertising Week Today pop-up newsletter. Reading this online and want it delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up here. (By subscribing, you’ll get occasional pop-up newsletters for various industry events throughout the year, including Cannes Lions, SXSW and CES.)

Day One

Advertising Week New York kicked off this morning at its new venue, The Market Line, while also offering streaming sessions. The verdict so far about AWNY IRL: It was super crowded in the morning, but started to thin out a bit in the afternoon—possibly because of unreliable Wi-Fi (more on that below). And the early verdict about the streaming sessions: They’ve been a bit glitchy. (If you’re looking for the full hybrid schedule, it’s right here.)

The Market Line, which opened in 2019 as a part of the sprawling Essex Crossing mixed-use (residential/office/retail) development, bills itself as a “buzzy bazaar where fashionable foodies go to eat, drink and get down in the heart of the Lower East Side.” Or, to state that a bit less glamorously … it’s a basement (with some natural light that filters down from the ground floor in various places).

Ad Age’s Parker Herren offered this pro tip to his newsroom colleagues on our internal Slack Monday morning: “If you’re going in person, get to panels super early,” noting that a panel he attended ended up being standing-room-only. But by the afternoon, he amended that statement: “I’ve chatted with multiple people unhappy with the Wi-Fi, especially because cell reception is so poor, so some folks seem to be heading offsite to get actual work done.”

Ad Age’s Brain Bonilla, meanwhile, noted that AWNY has had some issues with keeping its streams straight on its website. A panel titled “Why Coming Out at Work is Good for Business,” for instance, initially served up video of a session focused on programmatic and commerce media. Some virtual visitors took to various streams’ integrated chat boxes to ask how to find the right panel. At one point, an AWNY staffer responded, “We’ve been having difficulties with links today. I’m going to investigate.”

Shingy speaks

A thought experiment: If AWNY switched its streams for its Shingy and Elmo sessions (by accident or on purpose), would anyone notice?

Cuddly Elmo is set to take the virtual stage on Thursday as part of a panel titled “Sesame Street Reimagined.” And famously wild-haired Shingy, aka David Shing, who was most recently Verizon Media’s “digital prophet” (yes, that was his actual title), is the star of a half-dozen or so 15-minute sessions, sponsored by the Amazon Ads Studio, sprinkled throughout the week.

Ad Age’s Asa Hiken tuned into Shingy’s first session, titled “Creativity in the Metaverse.” His dispatch:

Shingy is very bullish on Meta’s metaverse. In a pre-recorded session, Shingy explained that the “setup from Meta [is] awesome” because brands and users can experiment with metaverse tools and see how far the space is able to go. The irony, though, is that Shingy’s bullishness comes on the heels of reports from The Verge, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal detailing a host of problems afflicting Mark Zuckerberg’s project, including bugginess with the infrastructure and an inability to court users. Either Shingy hasn’t been keeping up with the news or he’s rock-solid in his conviction.

Announced at AWNY

Advertising Week New York isn’t just about panels and pontificating. Every year, various companies take to AWNY’s stages to unveil new products, partnerships and campaigns. A short list from Monday’s announcements:

• “The Ad Council takes on the fentanyl crisis with an unlikely partner—former drug dealers,” from Ad Age’s Gillian Follett.

• “DoorDash names new retail media partners for its self-serve ad platform,” from Ad Age’s Garett Sloane.

• “Pinterest’s new measurement tool takes on Apple’s data changes,” also from Sloane.

Empathy is the new inclusion

A key takeaway from Monday’s AWNY panel titled “The Future is Female, But We’re Still Stuck in the Present,” per Ad Age’s Jade Yan:

Empathetic leadership—being sensitive to an individual’s needs and adjusting how you interact with them as a leader—“is the new inclusion,” said panelist Darla Price, president of DDB New York. One of the biggest personal challenges she experienced was working in Singapore and being the only person of color who wasn’t Asian, she told the audience. That allowed her to recognize when other people are put in similar situations and help them.

Frameplay’s viewability algorithm explained

In a Frameplay-sponsored session titled “Gamers Are Paying Attention. Are You?,” Frameplay gave brands a detailed look at what goes into the intrinsic in-game ad platform’s viewability algorithm. Ad Age’s Erika Wheless reports:

Determining an ad’s viewability in games involves two key factors: position telemetry, meaning where the player’s camera is located, and if the ad is obstructed. Frameplay uses five data points to determine an ad’s viewability, which is vital considering that the company only bills clients for viewable ads. The data points include how long the ad was visible to the player, how much of the ad was on screen, and how much of the screen was taken up by the ad. The final two points relate to where the ad was in relation to the camera, and how skewed the ad appeared. 

Panelist Meredith Hughes, VP and client partner at Labelium, a digital performance agency, called viewability data essential: “Being able to show clients viewability, and actions taken offline, is a game changer,” Hughes said during the session. “As traditional media becomes more expensive, I think games will become a tried-and-true platform sooner rather than later.”

Cranky tweet of the day

“Every week is Advertising Week if you’re actually doing the work and not concerned with panel discussions.” —Seattle-based copywriter Dan Goldgeier

Can companies ever really just be trying to do good?

When brands create campaigns that focus on social causes, “there is always a level of mistrust,” said Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer, during his AWNY talk “Marketing as a Force of Good,” reports Ad Age’s Jade Yan, adding that:

One way to build trust is charity that aligns with the corporation’s goals, said Rajamannar. Actions Mastercard has taken include pledging $500 million to support businesses owned by Black women in the U.S. and creating a campaign with singer Jennifer Hudson to promote the businesses. “It is [also] in our self-interest to promote small businesses,” because Mastercard gets some of that revenue, Rajamannar added.

A supermodel ready to wear NFTs

Coco Rocha, the supermodel famed for harnessing social media early in her career, spoke at Meta’s creator panel about—what else—the metaverse. Ad Age’s Garett Sloane reports:

Meta, and its metaverse plans, have some doubters, but Rocha is decidedly not one of them. Web3 tech and VR are already becoming part of cultural moments like New York Fashion Week, and luxury brands like Gucci are designing for digital. “For those in the fashion space, this is our world,” Rocha said. “Metaverse will be amazing … Think of haute couture, which is one-of-a-kind pieces in fashion—traditional fashion. That is an NFT. That will be my avatar, wearing a one-of-a-kind piece that I can actually buy, and maybe even create. That is our world.”

Rocha spoke with Nada Stirratt, Meta’s VP of global marketing solutions in North America, on a stage with Paige Piskin, an AR creator, and creative director Pablo Rochat.

Just briefly

• “Paramount’s new ad sales president on alternative measurement tests”—Parker Herren’s brief dispatch from an AWNY session starring John Halley in Ad Age’s media measurement blog.

• A shot of a sparsely attended AWNY session on the recession via Lindsay Bennett, global head of marketing at Gale. As she captioned her photo: “Is the ad industry still pretending it’s not happening?”

• Data clean room talk gets heated—Garett Sloane dishes on the hot topic as discussed by InfoSum’s Brian Lesser and analyst Joanna O’Connell.

Looking ahead

Sonic identity composer Lucas Murray will play the (virtual) salsa bongos at AWNY on Tuesday, teased here on Twitter. Murray’s participation is part of PepsiCo’s Tostitos panel about sonic branding, which is a spicy topic at Advertising Week. Plenty of marketers are talking about how catchy songs and sounds are core to their public identities.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, announced plans to buy Parler days after Twitter removed an anti-Semitic post from him and locked his account.

The founder of Theranos, the failed blood testing start-up, asked for a new trial after a surprise visit from a key witness to her house.

In the latest episode of Home / Work, host Antonio Lucio sits down with Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council, and her wife Julie Lichtstein, a therapist specializing in adolescents and young adults. During the conversation, they discuss playing to their strengths when it comes to household responsibilities, raising a daughter about…

Schema is one of the key elements when it comes to search engine optimization. Webmasters have considered it one of the most powerful forms of SEO.

The schema markup is a structured form of data that enables search engines to read your website pages in a better way. More than that, it also helps to improve the website’s online visibility with the help of featured snippets and rich snippets. The inclusion of structured data is a potent way to increase search rankings indirectly as it creates social signals for search engines.

The best thing about the schema is that anyone can add it to their website without needing a web developer. But you must ensure that the metadata you include has the proper format, as it directly impacts the SEO performance.

You can enlist the help of an SEO agency in London to make the best use of schema markup data.

Before we dive into the details, let’s start from the basics.

What is Schema Markup?

The schema markup is a code or, you can say, a technique which you can apply on your website to assist the search engines in creating and showing relevant and better results to the internet users.

If you explore your website’s HTML code, you will find a file called the ‘schema.org markup’. When updated correctly, this file will enable the search engine results page to provide your business or brand information to your targeted audience.

A standard snippet on the SERP displays fundamental and limited information, such as the page title, meta description, and URL. In comparison, the rich snippet is quite complex and provides more information. You can include all the additional information you want to appear on the search engine results page. Some examples of the information you can add with a rich snippet are operating hours, ratings, and event details, and you can also add ingredients for a recipe or other relevant information.

SEO Benefits You Can Get from Schema.Org

You can avail several benefits with Schema.org. Despite its outstanding benefits, only 33% of marketers are utilizing this potent tool. With the proper use of the Schema.org markup, you can go ahead of your competitors in many ways.

It Helps the Search Engine About the Data

It is the technique used to translate your website’s data so it can be easily readable by the search engine. The search engine works and holds a process of crawlers that reads every major and minor detail of your website. The crawlers check your website’s optimization with search engine practices. The inclusion of high-rank keywords in your website content is the best way to populate website pages within the search engine results pages.

In order to get productive SEO results, use the HTML code of your website so that it can be easily readable by the search engine crawler. This way, you will correctly get your business information displayed on the search engine results page.

It Improves the Click-Through Rate

The more your website is informative within the search engine results page, the more chances it gets to drive the online traffic towards itself. The click-through rate is one of the essential elements of your website. Creating multiple pages for your website is good, but if the schema markup is not correctly coded, you won’t get more leads and, thus, more business.

Each webpage functions in its way. Online marketing is not just about creating a website and uploading large content; you have to make sure that every page performs its function effectively that meets your business goals. Schema is one of the simplest ways to get all website pages to stand out on the search engine result page. The home page, service page, about us and contact us all have their own importance, and you can manage all these pages by using the right informative schema code at the backend of your website.

Types of Popular Schema Markups

You can use a wide range of schema Markups in the schema vocabulary. You only need to remember that it should be informative and relevant. Here’s the list of some types of popular schema Markups.

• Local business
• People
• Products
• Events
• Books
• Podcasts
• How-to
• Medical conditions
• Job postings
• Logos
• FAQ pages
• Movies
• Videos
• Organization
• Sitelink search box

These are all the things that you can display on the front end of the website by using the correct schema Markup.

Conclusion

So, online businesses not using this potential tool should start leveraging it and see growth-oriented results quickly. You need to fulfil some tactics while writing the schema Markup. Once you get it done rightly, you will see the perks of it in the form of online traffic.